7 Easy Ways to Stop Your Desk Chair From Rolling

Share this post:

Lots of people spend a significant amount of time each day sitting on desk chairs. You might sit on a desk chair at work or you might even use one for when you’re relaxing at home and playing video games.

These chairs are actually quite comfortable, but sometimes you will get annoyed if they start rolling while you’re trying to sit still.

There are a few issues that can cause this to happen such as placing a chair on a slight slope, but you can solve the problem very easily by taking the right steps. Read on to learn about how you can stop your desk chair from rolling.

You’ll be able to discover many practical methods that can help you to just enjoy using your desk chair without having to worry so much about it rolling.

1 – Use Hands-Free Brake Casters

You can actually add something to your desk chair that will make it easier for you to use it without it rolling. They sell things that are known as hands-free brake casters that you can add right onto the wheels of your desk chair.

These brake casters allow you to use your feet to switch the brakes into the “on” position so that the chair can’t slide.

It’s really convenient to use brake casters like this for multiple reasons. They’re very easy to place on the desk chair wheels, and most brake casters will simply snap into place with very little effort.

Also, it’s something that won’t keep you from being able to roll the chair fast since you can easily place the brake casters into the “off” position with your foot so that you can roll again.

If you’re looking for a logical solution that will allow you to use your desk chair with ease, then this is likely going to work out fantastically.

Many people who use some type of cycling equipment under their desks like using hands-free brake casters to make things easier. It should work out well if you’re using a desk chair for video games, too.

Some of the brake casters won’t be as easy to use with just your foot, though. If you have a hard time reaching the lever with your foot, then you might have to bend down to engage it.

This could be a bit of an annoyance for some, but there are some potential other solutions that will still be pretty much the same.

For example, there are different models of brake casters, and one of the more popular ones sets the brake when you sit on it.

This means that whenever you’re sitting down, the chair isn’t going to be able to roll. When you lift your body up, you’re going to be able to easily roll the chair again.

Look into different brake caster types to find one that will be the most convenient for you. If you think it’s necessary, you could take some measurements to ensure that the brake casters will fit your specific desk chair.

Overall, this is probably the best advice for most people who are trying to stop desk chairs from rolling.

2 – Place the Chair on an Area Rug

If your chair is rolling on you while you’re trying to sit, then it might be because your floor is a bit slippery. You could stop this by placing your desk chair on something that will keep it in place.

The easiest solution to this is to put your desk chair on top of an area rug of some sort.

You could easily just buy a small area rug that you can place in front of your desk. If you put your desk chair on this, then it should be much more difficult for your chair to move around when you don’t want it to.

This is a logical and cost-effective way to solve your desk chair rolling issue that will work out for most.

Of course, the one potential problem with this is that it can also make it tough to roll your chair when you want to. If you’d like to be able to roll back and forth sometimes, then having an area rug will likely complicate that.

You might wind up shifting the rug underneath the chair when you try to roll it back so that you can stand up.

There are types of plastic mats that are designed to be placed under desk chairs, too. These plastic mats will often have special gripping properties on the floor that will help to keep it in place.

You could have a good experience with these, and looking into that might be better than a normal area rug depending on what you want.

The overall aesthetic appeal might matter to you as well. Many office workers want to ensure that everything looks right in an office environment, and an area rug may or may not fit in well with what everyone else has going on.

Just know that there are options when considering the area rug idea.

3 – Use a Strap to Secure the Chair

It’s also possible to use a strap to secure your chair to a fixed position. There are actually many under the desk cycle products that people like to use to get exercise while doing office work.

Many of these come with simple straps that are designed to strap your desk chair to the cycle that you’re using.

You could also easily buy a strap that you could use to fasten your chair to some other fixed point. You could try to secure your desk chair to the desk itself or to something else nearby that will limit its ability to roll.

This is a fairly simple thing that will allow you to accomplish the task of stopping your desk chair from rolling, but it might not be as practical as you’d like it to be.

Once again, if you want to roll your desk chair a bit more freely when you want to, then this is going to be a bad fix. It will limit the range of motion that your desk chair has and will prevent you from being able to roll the chair back too far or to the side.

Consider whether this would make things inconvenient for you before you go through with this option, but do understand that the strap can easily be removed when you want it to as well.

4 – Simple Caster Stoppers

Another idea is to go ahead and make use of simple caster stoppers to keep your desk chair from rolling.

These are very easy to use and they’re also incredibly inexpensive. You are just buying simple shaped blocks of wood or plastic that are designed to fit next to your casters so that they won’t be able to roll past them.

Many people use methods like this to keep certain types of furniture from sliding on hardwood floors. It’s likely a bit more practical to use this for a furniture item that is not going to be moved very often.

For instance, it makes sense to use stoppers on your couch if you’re worried about it sliding since you aren’t going to be relocating it very often at all.

The problem with this idea is that you need to manually place the casters each time you need to use the desk chair. You’ll be bending down to move them every single time you wish to move the chair back a little bit.

This can limit how useful caster stoppers are, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t solve the problem of having your desk chair roll.

5 – Place Foam Under Your Chair

Do you have any foam material that you could use to help you with your desk chair rolling issue?

Some people have had success by cutting out a square block of foam and placing it under the chair to keep it in place. You place the block of foam directly under the center of your desk chair, and not under the desk chair wheels.

If things go as planned, this should prevent the chair from rolling subtly and causing you to be disturbed throughout your day.

You just don’t want to make the block of foam too thick because you don’t want it to prevent you from being able to roll the chair at all. It’s just supposed to make the chair roll less because of subtle movements.

You can use just about any type of foam to accomplish this task, and it might even be possible to use other items in a similar fashion. Just think about whether this idea can help to solve your desk chair rolling issue.

If you don’t think that this is right for your situation, then you have plenty of other methods to consider.

6 – Replace the Wheels

Perhaps you just don’t like sitting on a chair that has wheels on it because of how much it moves.

If this is unsettling or distracting to you, then you could just replace the wheels on your chair entirely. You can easily find some simple gliding casters that will allow you to sit in a stationary position.

Some people like stationary chairs better than traditional rolling desk chairs, and this might be a better fit for you. It might seem like a bit of a pain to replace the wheels with gliding casters, but it’s really not that hard to do.

You can easily pop the wheels off of most office chairs, and it’ll only take a few minutes at most to get the gliding casters into position.

It’s also worth considering whether your desk chair needs to have the wheels replaced because they’re faulty.

Sometimes you might just have a bad set of wheels that are too slippery. If you suspect that this might be the case, then buying a new set of desk chair wheels that have better grip might solve your problems.

You can replace your wheels and then see if they are better about not rolling while you’re trying to work. Many people have found success with this method.

Whether you want to replace the wheels with gliders or better wheels with good grip, it’s going to be worth looking into this.

7 – Buy a New Chair

Buying a new chair is another option when you’re having issues and you just can’t be bothered.

If you determine that your chair is sliding because your chair just isn’t that good and it doesn’t have great grip, then this could work out fine. Buying a better chair that does have a good grip will allow you to stay in place easier.

Depending on how much your original chair cost, this will either be a practical move or an unwelcome one. Few people want to drop hundreds of dollars on a good office chair when they already have an expensive office chair.

If you’re using a less expensive low-quality desk chair right now, then you might be into the idea of upgrading to something that works better for your needs.

Consider looking at some customer reviews before purchasing your new desk chair, too. You want to be sure that it has good wheels that will grip whatever type of surface you’re trying to place it on.

Otherwise, you could just be buying a more expensive chair that will have similar problems to the ones you’ve been having.

Come up with an Innovative Solution

It’s even possible to come up with some type of an innovative solution if you have a good imagination.

Gamers, in particular, have solved the desk chair rolling issue in various ways so that they can play different types of games. For instance, you might want to come up with the perfect setup so that you can play virtual reality games at home.

People who are into playing racing games have fastened desk chairs to plywood and created grooves that they will attach to the wheels. This allows them to move the chair along a grooved portion of the plywood, but it stays in place otherwise.

You could come up with your own custom solutions if you have a bit of a creative streak.

Share this post: